A confessed con man pleaded guilty Monday to 13 counts of fraud and theft, most of which targeted women he met through online dating sites, engaged in romantic relationships, and scammed.

Judge Harbans Dhillon sentenced Wesley John Devries to three years in prison, and denounced the way he “used seduction and trickery, and preyed on the emotions and kindnesses of his targets to defraud them of monies.”

“He is a confidence artist in the most pejorative sense of the term,” Dhillon said. “He takes gross advantage of the natural human need for love, companionship and kindness.”

A group of Devries’ victims and their supporters watched from the gallery in Vancouver Provincial Court. Devries stared ahead throughout the day and did not turn back to look at them.

After submissions from Devries’ defence counsel, Crown prosecutor Peter Stabler had little to add, other than pointing the judge to a 2004 conviction on 28 counts of a similar nature.

The crown was seeking a three-year prison sentence, while defence asked for a shorter sentence in a provincial jail, followed by probation.

Judge Dhillon took 30 minutes to come to her decision, agreeing with the prosecution and sentencing Devries to three years in federal prison, less the two months he has already served in pretrial custody.

Defence lawyer Esther Kornfeld had said that Devries’ criminal acts stemmed from an undiagnosed mental health issue, and his sentence should focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment.

Judge Dhillon refuted this in her decision, saying “I find that the suggestion of an undiagnosed condition cannot be given creedence, because it is not supported by any medical evidence...

“A self-diagnosis coming from an admitted con artist cannot be given any weight.”

Outside the courtroom after the sentencing, Crown counsel Peter Stabler spoke to a group of Devries’ victims.

“It did come together because you all came together,” Stabler told them.

“One case by itself amounts to a ‘he said, she said.’ Unless you can get a confluence of witnesses coming together, the files don’t go anywhere,” he said. “This is great. Victims standing up for themselves, coming together.”

Det. Ivan De Silva from the VPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit led the investigation. He called Monday’s proceedings “a great outcome.”

“This case is a good example of all the pieces of the justice system, including the press, working together for the cause of justice,” De Silva said in an email Monday afternoon.

The story serves as a reminder, De Silva said, for people not to give personal information, especially financial details, to a person they’ve recently met, who could be “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Judge Dhillon ordered that Devries pay restitution to all of the victims. By her estimation, he had scammed or stolen about $40,000 from victims over a four-month period between April and July.

The victims present Monday said they don’t hold out much, if any, hope for ever getting that money back, but they still looked at the conviction as a victory.

“The win is the publicity and the dent in his victim pool. It doesn’t matter as much how much time he gets,” said Lisa Dwyer, the first person contacted by The Province in connection with Devries.

Dwyer, Laura Ainsley, and Liz Charyna had all filed charges against Devries and were in court together Monday to see him plead guilty.

During a mid-day break in proceedings, the three women said they would not believe Devries if he apologized or expressed remorse. They said there was nothing they really wanted to hear from him.

But they said they wanted Devries to see them there, to know they were watching him in court.

In a jailhouse interview two weeks before the sentencing, Devries told The Province he wanted to make a statement in court. But on Monday he decided not to speak.

Ainsley said she wasn’t surprised Devries declined to speak after he saw her and the other victims present.

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